


A Brief History of 24 Mountain Road

by gothsebastian



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Family Drama, Gen, Underage Drinking, emos being emo, extremely minimal swearing, happy-ish ending, robin is amazing, very limited canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 12:28:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16853974
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gothsebastian/pseuds/gothsebastian
Summary: Robin tried her best, she really did. Her husband and kids were the most important things in the world to her. If she didn't have her family, she had nothing. And what she had then could hardly be called a family.-What may have happened in the 24 Mountain Road household before the events of the game.





	A Brief History of 24 Mountain Road

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a couple years ago and never posted it, but I figure someone might enjoy it...:~)

His name was Miles.

He was courageous, energetic, and adventurous. He wasn't afraid of anything and he hated being cooped up in one place for too long.  
Robin loved him; she really did. She worked a mundane job at the local supermarket, but there was never a dull moment with Miles. He was everything she wanted and needed back then. They were young and independent and in love and everything was perfect.

Until she found out.

Miles was fun and he treated Robin well. But he was flaky. He was unstable, and he didn't want to settle down. He wanted to keep exploring and never stop moving.

Robin didn't even tell him.

She didn't want to raise a child with him. She realized that while eating breakfast with him one Sunday morning.

"I'm tired of this town," he'd told her. Let's move to the city, get a new apartment, start something new. Come on, honey, aren't you sick of this life?"

If she had gone along with it, that would have been their sixth apartment in two years. A new address, a new phone number, all over again. There was no wonder why Robin was still working an entry level job at twenty-three. She was never going to get anywhere in life if her husband couldn't sit still. It was fun while it lasted, but this was the last thing she wanted to put her child through.

So she left. She moved to a new town, bought a house in the mountains, and started a carpentry business. She had a baby boy and named him Sebastian.  
Miles still doesn't know.

Robin and Sebastian were inseparable. He was her baby, her whole family, her world. She treated him as such. Sebastian played outside a lot. Robin would chase him through the woods or pelt him with snowballs. They invented hundreds of games together, the two of them.

 

Sebastian always knew a man would come along and fall for his mother.

His name was Demetrius.

Sebastian and Demetrius got along fine. Sebastian taught Demetrius how to play their games and Demetrius taught Sebastian how to make a volcano out of baking soda and vinegar. Demetrius was like an older, wiser friend and that was the way Sebastian liked it. He did not see Demetrius as a dad.

Somewhere along the way, Demetrius started parenting him.

Demetrius and Robin got married in a small ceremony in Pelican Town. It was about that time that Demetrius started to act like a father. He told Sebastian when it was time to come inside, when he had to wash the dishes, and fussed at him for not putting away his toys.

Sebastian didn't like it.

It happened one night during the summer. Sebastian was on the floor in his room, pushing his toy cars around and talking to himself. He was interrupted by the sound of his name.

"Sebastian, it's well past your bedtime. You'd better get in bed now and go to sleep."

Sebastian stood up angrily and faced his step-dad. He crossed his arms across his chest and scowled at Demetrius. "You can't tell me what to do. You're not my dad!"

He slammed the door in Demetrius's face.

The next morning when Robin went to wake up her son, his room was empty.

He had retreated into the basement.

Sebastian was perfectly happy in the basement. He had his privacy and didn't get in anyone's way. There was a bit of tension between him and Demetrius, but they played nice around each other and Robin pretended not to notice. They would patch things up eventually, Sebastian told himself.

 

Demetrius wanted a child.

He told Robin again and again. He wanted to have a child together. He wanted one of his own, one that could call him "dad." Of course, Robin obliged.

They named her Maru. She was smart, crafty, inventive, and independent.

Just like her father.

Sebastian was happy to have a playmate. He taught her how to jump rope, how to play hopscotch, and how to count to one hundred. They could play and giggle together for hours when they were kids.

Nothing made Robin and Demetrius happier than seeing them get along.

Nobody could blame Demetrius for favoring Maru.

She was his child. His first born, his youngest, his spitting image. She was everything he was proud of and everything he loved about his wife. The way he fathered Maru was different than the way he fathered Sebastian.

It made Sebastian sick.

Demetrius hung each and every one of Maru's drawings up in his lab. Sebastian remembered clearly the day that Demetrius took down Sebastian's drawings from those same walls. "Do you even use this office?" He had asked. "It would make a great laboratory."

Maru was treated like a princess. She got all of the toys she wanted because Demetrius loved her. She got to shopping and fishing and hiking with their dad, just the two of them, because Demetrius loved her.

Demetrius scolded Sebastian for never leaving his room. Because he loved him.

It was a different kind of love, Sebastian guessed. The love Sebastian felt for his step-father, though, he wasn't quite sure he could call that love.

 

The day Sebastian got a job, he got many blank stares.

He had expected as much. It wasn't a job people were familiar with. But it meant that Sebastian was good at something, and that he was being productive. That meant something to him, if no one else.

Robin hugged and kissed him, telling him how proud she was of him. It didn't matter that she didn't know what he was doing. He was doing something. She treated him to his first drink. Sebastian got tipsy, and his mom laughed at what a lightweight he was. It was all in good fun, of course. He and Robin still had a special bond. They were still best friends, and he made sure his mother knew that.

They went home happy, and the next day Sebastian let his mom stick around in his bedroom for long enough to teach her a bit about coding.

"It's a bit like building," she said. And so it was.

 

Sebastian heard his parents arguing that night when he crept upstairs to get a snack. He couldn't help but stick around and listen.

"You took him out for a drink?" Demetrius was mad. "Robin, he's only seventeen. Do you know how bad that stuff is for his brain?"  
Sebastian rolled his eyes. His mother probably did too.

"Demetrius, did you hear what I said? A drink. A drink. One. What harm could that do? He deserves a reward, D; he's a good kid."

"It only takes one time to get addicted, Robin." Demetrius's voice was stern. "I don't want you to let him drink anymore."

Sebastian heard his mother laugh. He pressed his ear to the kitchen wall, eagerly awaiting her response.

"You have no right."

"What?"

"You have no right to tell me how to parent him," Robin continued. "He's not your son. And I know you don't forget that."

They were both silent for a few moments.

"Robin, I love him, okay? I'm doing this because—"

"You can cut that crap," Robin interrupted her husband. "You don't love him the same way you love Maru, and you never will. Maybe you don't notice the difference in the way you treat them, but I do. And I'm sure as hell my son does."

"Robbie, wait."

"I just need to get some fresh air," Robin mumbled, and suddenly the door was opening. Sebastian ducked behind the pantry.

"Sebby?" Robin whispered after closing the bedroom door and stepping into the kitchen. "Sebastian, I know you're here."

Sebastian peeked out from behind the cabinet.

"How did you know?"

"I didn't," his mom replied. "I just thought you might be. Now come here."

Robin opened her arms for Sebastian, and he leaned against her, closing his eyes.

"I'm sorry," she whispered after a few seconds of silence.

"For what?"

"For the way he's been treating you."

"It's not your fault."

Robin sniffed. "I know. But I'm gonna do my best to fix this. You deserve better."

"Thank you," Sebastian replied. "Thanks for standing up for me. You're the best mom in the world."

 

Robin tried her best, she really did. Her husband and kids were the most important things in the world to her. If she didn't have her family, she had nothing. And what she had then could hardly be called a family.

Demetrius went back to being Sebastian's friend. Sebastian didn't mind it too much.

When Sebastian drove home on his motorcycle, Demetrius was furious. Sebastian could see it in his eyes. He waited outside while his parents argued in the foyer.

"How could you let him get that? Do you know how dangerous those things are?"

"He's been wanting one for years, babe; can't you see how happy he is? He worked hard for that money and bought it himself. He's a man now, Demetrius."

Sebastian stopped listening and sat down on his new bike. He'd learned the hard way that some things are better left unheard.

A few minutes passed and then Demetrius walked outside, a smile on his face.

"That's a shiny bike, kid," he said calmly. Sebastian stared at him and nodded, waiting for a lecture.

"Lemme show you how to change the oil."

 

Maru got a job at the clinic a few summers later. She could hardly be called a nurse--if anything, she was Harvey's gopher--but that didn't stop Demetrius from calling her so. "I can't believe my baby girl is a nurse," he would say. "You're gonna grow up to be a scientist like me -- I can feel it."

They took Maru to dinner after her first week. Of course, everyone in the saloon congratulated her and told her what a great job she was doing at the clinic. Sebastian tried his best to be happy for her. And if he couldn't, well, at least he got pizza.

"Can I get a beer?"

"What?" Demetrius was taken aback. Robin glanced at her son, as if gauging his reaction. He pretended not to notice.

"Well," Maru explained, "I thought that since I'm basically an adult now that maybe I could--"

"You absolutely cannot," Demetrius cut her off. "Alcohol is a detriment to the teenage brain and you're too smart to waste your brain cells on that disgusting liquid cancer."

Sebastian didn't expect Maru to argue. She knew her father; she knew how protective he was of his precious baby girl.

"But that's not fair," Maru spoke up.

"It is fair," Demetrius responded. "You can drink when you're twenty. Now let's please enjoy dinner together, okay?"

Maru smiled all through dinner, seemingly unbothered. Sebastian would have never known she was upset if he hadn't run into his sister and step-dad arguing upstairs that evening.

"How is it fair?" She wasn't yelling, but that was the loudest Sebastian had ever heard her speak. "Sebastian got to drink when he was my age! Sebastian has a motorcycle and I'm not even allowed to drive a car. Tell me that's not unfair!"

"You wanna talk unfair?"

Demetrius and Maru both turned around in surprise. Sebastian was at the top of the staircase, glaring his half-sister.

"How is it fair that your dad got you everything you wanted when you were a kid, but told Mom that 'Sebastian is spoiled enough already' when she wanted to get me a present? How is it fair that your drawings from ten years ago are still on display in your dad's lab while mine are shoved in the bottom drawer? How is it fair that when I got a job, Mom was the only person who congratulated me, but when you started working at the clinic, everyone in the town wanted to celebrate? How is it fair that you have two parents who love you and I only have one?"

Sebastian had said enough. Years’ worth of anger escaped his body at once, and then he ran, scurried down the stairs and locked himself in his dark room.

He felt so worthless next to Maru, and that made him angry. He wasn't any dumber than her. He wasn't any less creative or talented than her. He shouldn't have felt that way, but he did. And it made him so goddamn angry.

Someone knocked on the basement door. If that's Demetrius, thought Sebastian, I'm not letting him in.

"Mom?"

"No," replied the voice at the door.

Sebastian stood up and unlocked the door. His sister never came down there. In fact, he wasn't sure if she'd ever been in his room at all. Suddenly, she was walking forward, forward, and then she was hugging him.

"What are you doing."

"I'm hugging you."

"...Why?"

"Because you're my brother," Maru whispered. She stood back, placing her hands on Sebastian's arms and holding him at arm's length.

Sebastian sighed, refusing to make eye contact.

"It never felt like I was your brother."

"I know," said Maru. "I never felt like you liked me. You're just this...presence in the basement."

"I'm pretty sure that's how your dad feels about me too."

Maru chuckled.

"Do you remember?" Sebastian asked her. "When we were kids, we would play together all the time. I would teach you games and we would run around together for hours. Do you even remember that?"

"I don't," Maru sighed. "What happened?"

"Your dad happened," said Sebastian, looking down at his sister's shoes. "He had you up on this pedestal like you were a perfect angel. It kinda made me hate you."

"So..." Maru started. "He really did treat me differently?"

"He still does," replied her brother. "But things are better now, between me and him. We're friends, I think."

Sebastian finally looked at Maru's face.

"You know," she said, smiling up at him, "I think he loves you. He just doesn't know how to show it."

"Really?" Sebastian asked. He glanced down and then back up at her eyes.

"Yeah," Maru continued. "And I'm pretty sure you feel the same way."


End file.
